Target availability threshold calculation mechanism

ABSTRACT

Techniques and structures to facilitate determining a threshold metric value, including receiving a plurality of performance metrics data from a metrics store, determining a threshold metric value that enables a plurality of machines to attain a target availability percentage performance service-level agreement (SLA) based on the plurality of performance metrics data and reporting the threshold metric value.

TECHNICAL FIELD

One or more implementations relate to customer relationship management(CRM) systems, and more specifically, to calculation of variables forCRM system to meet a target availability percentage at performance SLA.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to (copyright or mask work) protection. The (copyrightor mask work) owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction byanyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears inthe Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwisereserves all (copyright or mask work) rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are implemented to managea company's relationships and interactions with customers and potentialcustomers by compiling data from a range of different communicationchannels, including a company's website, telephone, email, live chat,marketing materials and social media. A CRM system may often servicemany clients, which often necessitates a service level agreements (SLA)between clients and a CRM service provider defining a level of serviceexpected from the service provider. The level of service is defined byvarious performance metrics that the provider aims to guarantee.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following drawings like reference numbers are used to refer tolike elements. Although the following figures depict various examples,one or more implementations are not limited to the examples depicted inthe figures.

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a system;

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a host organization;

FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a calculation engine;

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of code to implement a threshold valuerange module;

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of code to implement error handlinglogic;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of a variablecalculation process;

FIG. 7 illustrates a computer system according to one embodiment;

FIG. 8 illustrates an environment wherein an on-demand database servicemight be used according to one embodiment; and

FIG. 9 illustrates elements of environment of FIG. 8 and variouspossible interconnections between these elements according to oneembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth.However, embodiments of the invention may be practiced without thesespecific details. In other instances, well-known structures andtechniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure theunderstanding of this description.

Methods and systems are provided to facilitate determining a thresholdmetric value that enables all machines in a system to attain a targetavailability percentage performance service-level agreement (SLA).

It is contemplated that embodiments and their implementations are notmerely limited to multi-tenant database system (“MTDBS”) and can be usedin other environments, such as a client-server system, a mobile device,a personal computer (“PC”), a web services environment, etc. However,for the sake of brevity and clarity, throughout this document,embodiments are described with respect to a multi-tenant databasesystem, such as Salesforce.com®, which is to be regarded as an exampleof an on-demand services environment. Other on-demand servicesenvironments include Salesforce® Exact Target Marketing Cloud™.

As used herein, a term multi-tenant database system refers to thosesystems in which various elements of hardware and software of thedatabase system may be shared by one or more customers. For example, agiven application server may simultaneously process requests for a greatnumber of customers, and a given database table may store rows for apotentially much greater number of customers. As used herein, the termquery plan refers to a set of steps used to access information in adatabase system.

Embodiments are described with reference to an embodiment in whichtechniques for facilitating management of data in an on-demand servicesenvironment are implemented in a system having an application serverproviding a front end for an on-demand database service capable ofsupporting multiple tenants, embodiments are not limited to multi-tenantdatabases nor deployment on application servers. Embodiments may bepracticed using other database architectures, i.e., ORACLE®, DB2® by IBMand the like without departing from the scope of the embodimentsclaimed.

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a system 100 having a computingdevice. In one embodiment, computing device 120 includes a host servercomputer serving a host machine. The term “user” may refer to a systemuser, such as (without limitation) a software/application developer, asystem administrator, a database administrator, an informationtechnology professional, a program manager, product manager, etc. Theterm “user” may further refer to an end-user, such as (withoutlimitation) one or more of customer organizations 121A-N and/or theirrepresentatives (e.g., individuals or groups working on behalf of one ormore of customer organizations 121A-N), such as a salesperson, a salesmanager, a product manager, an accountant, a director, an owner, apresident, a system administrator, a computer programmer, an informationtechnology (“IT”) representative, etc.

In one embodiment, computing device 120 may serve as a service providercore (e.g., Salesforce.com® core) in communication with one or moredatabase(s) 140, one or more client computers 130A-N, over one or morenetwork(s) 135, and any number and type of dedicated nodes. Computingdevice 120 may include (without limitation) server computers (e.g.,cloud server computers, etc.), desktop computers, cluster-basedcomputers, set-top boxes (e.g., Internet-based cable television set-topboxes, etc.), etc. Computing device 120 includes an operating system(“OS”) 106 serving as an interface between one or more hardware/physicalresources of computing device 120 and one or more client devices130A-130N, etc. Computing device 120 further includes processor(s) 102,memory 104, input/output (“I/O”) sources 108, such as touchscreens,touch panels, touch pads, virtual or regular keyboards, virtual orregular mice, etc.

In one embodiment, host organization 101 may further employ a productionenvironment that is communicably interfaced with client devices 130A-Nthrough host organization 101. Client devices 130A-N may include(without limitation) customer organization-based server computers,desktop computers, laptop computers, mobile computing devices, such assmartphones, tablet computers, personal digital assistants, e-readers,media Internet devices, smart televisions, television platforms,wearable devices (e.g., glasses, watches, bracelets, smartcards,jewelry, clothing items, etc.), media players, global positioningsystem-based navigation systems, cable setup boxes, etc.

In one embodiment, the illustrated multi-tenant database system 150includes database(s) 140 to store (without limitation) information,relational tables, datasets, and underlying database records havingtenant and user data therein on behalf of customer organizations 121A-N(e.g., tenants of multi-tenant database system 150 or their affiliatedusers). In alternative embodiments, a client-server computingarchitecture may be utilized in place of multi-tenant database system150, or alternatively, a computing grid, or a pool of work servers, orsome combination of hosted computing architectures may be utilized tocarry out the computational workload and processing that is expected ofhost organization 101.

The illustrated multi-tenant database system 150 is shown to include oneor more of underlying hardware, software, and logic elements 145 thatimplement, for example, database functionality and a code executionenvironment within host organization 101. In accordance with oneembodiment, multi-tenant database system 150 further implementsdatabases 140 to service database queries and other data interactionswith the databases 140. In one embodiment, hardware, software, and logicelements 145 of multi-tenant database system 150 and its other elements,such as a distributed file store, a query interface, etc., may beseparate and distinct from customer organizations (121A-121N) whichutilize the services provided by host organization 101 by communicablyinterfacing with host organization 101 via network(s) 135 (e.g., cloudnetwork, the Internet, etc.). In such a way, host organization 101 mayimplement on-demand services, on-demand database services, cloudcomputing services, etc., to subscribing customer organizations121A-121N.

In some embodiments, host organization 101 receives input and otherrequests from a plurality of customer organizations 121A-N over one ormore networks 135; for example, incoming search queries, databasequeries, application programming interface (“API”) requests,interactions with displayed graphical user interfaces and displays atclient devices 130A-N, or other inputs may be received from customerorganizations 121A-N to be processed against multi-tenant databasesystem 150 as queries via a query interface and stored at a distributedfile store, pursuant to which results are then returned to an originatoror requestor, such as a user of client devices 130A-N at any of customerorganizations 121A-N.

As aforementioned, in one embodiment, each customer organization 121A-Nis an entity selected from a group consisting of a separate and distinctremote organization, an organizational group within host organization101, a business partner of host organization 101, a customerorganization 121A-N that subscribes to cloud computing services providedby host organization 101, etc.

In one embodiment, requests are received at, or submitted to, a webserver within host organization 101. Host organization 101 may receive avariety of requests for processing by host organization 101 and itsmulti-tenant database system 150. For example, incoming requestsreceived at the web server may specify which services from hostorganization 101 are to be provided, such as query requests, searchrequest, status requests, database transactions, graphical userinterface requests and interactions, processing requests to retrieve,update, or store data on behalf of one of customer organizations 121A-N,code execution requests, and so forth. Further, the web-server at hostorganization 101 may be responsible for receiving requests from variouscustomer organizations 121A-N via network(s) 135 on behalf of the queryinterface and for providing a web-based interface or other graphicaldisplays to one or more end-user client devices 130A-N or machinesoriginating such data requests.

Further, host organization 101 may implement a request interface via theweb server or as a stand-alone interface to receive requests packets orother requests from the client devices 130A-N. The request interface mayfurther support the return of response packets or other replies andresponses in an outgoing direction from host organization 101 to one ormore client devices 130A-N.

It is to be noted that any references to software codes, data and/ormetadata (e.g., Customer Relationship Model (“CRM”) data and/ormetadata, etc.), tables (e.g., custom object table, unified indextables, description tables, etc.), computing devices (e.g., servercomputers, desktop computers, mobile computers, such as tabletcomputers, smartphones, etc.), software development languages,applications, and/or development tools or kits (e.g., Force.com®,Force.com Apex™ code, JavaScript™, jQuery™, Developerforce™,Visualforce™, Service Cloud Console Integration Toolkit™ (“IntegrationToolkit” or “Toolkit”), Platform on a Service™ (“PaaS”), Chatter®Groups, Sprint Planner®, MS Project®, etc.), domains (e.g., Google®,Facebook®, LinkedIn®, Skype®, etc.), etc., discussed in this documentare merely used as examples for brevity, clarity, and ease ofunderstanding and that embodiments are not limited to any particularnumber or type of data, metadata, tables, computing devices, techniques,programming languages, software applications, software developmenttools/kits, etc.

It is to be noted that terms like “node”, “computing node”, “server”,“server device”, “cloud computer”, “cloud server”, “cloud servercomputer”, “machine”, “host machine”, “device”, “computing device”,“computer”, “computing system”, “multi-tenant on-demand data system”,“multi-tenant database system” and the like, may be used interchangeablythroughout this document. It is to be further noted that terms like“code”, “software code”, “application”, “software application”,“program”, “software program”, “package”, “software code”, “code”, and“software package” may be used interchangeably throughout this document.Moreover, terms like “job”, “input”, “request”, and “message” may beused interchangeably throughout this document.

FIG. 2 illustrates a more detailed embodiment of a host organization101. As shown in FIG. 2, host organization 101 includes machines 220 anda database system 250 coupled via a data channel. According to oneembodiment, each machine 220 represents an instance, which comprises acluster of infrastructure (e.g., servers, software, networkingequipment, etc.) that hosts one or more customer organizations (ortenants) within host organization 101. Database system 250 receivesperformance metrics data (or metrics data) generated by each machine220, where the performance metrics include non-customer-specificinformation indicating the performance of components within hostorganization 101. In one embodiment, database system 250 includes ametric store 255 to collect and store metrics data. As shown in FIG. 2,metric store 210 includes a transform 257 and metrics storage database259.

In order to ensure proper system performance, machines 220 must adhereto an availability percentage at a performance SLA. However, accuratethreshold values are required for machines 220 to maintain an assignmentof time for resource access to determine whether the machines areadhering to the availability percentage at performance SLA. As a result,a threshold metric value at which all (or some) of the machines 220 havea target availability percentage must be determined to understandthresholds of performance SLA metrics.

According to one embodiment, database system 250 also includes a valuecalculation mechanism 210 to determine threshold metric values thatenable one or more machines 220 to satisfy a target availabilitypercentage performance SLA. In such an embodiment, value calculationmechanism 210 receives a minimum metric value and a maximum metricvalue, and determines a threshold value (X) between the minimum andmaximum values at which the target availability percentage (A) isattained for all machines 220. In yet a further embodiment, valuecalculation mechanism 210 indicates whether one or more additionalsources of machine 220 health metrics may be included to computeavailability.

In one embodiment, value calculation mechanism 210 includes aconfiguration module 212, a validator 214, calculation engine 216, errorhandling logic 218 and reporting module 219. Configuration module 212provides configuration data to calculation engine 216. According to oneembodiment, the configuration data specifies metrics that are to beconfigured. For instance, the configuration data may include a timerange, metric value range, machines 220, target availability percentage,etc. Additionally, the configuration data may specify a number ofparallel threads and machines 220 that are to be processed (e.g., tocontrol parallelism). Validator 214 validates the accuracy of theconfiguration data provided by configuration module 212.

Calculation engine 216 is implemented to determine threshold metricvalues that attain a target availability percentage performanceservice-level agreement (SLA). FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of acalculation engine 216. As shown in FIG. 3, calculation engine 216includes a thread generator 310, time range logic 320 and thresholdvalue range module 330. According to one embodiment, thread generator310 reads the configuration data (e.g., input boundaries, number ofparallel threads, parallel count of machines to process) to generate aset of threads that are transmitted in parallel as a query to transform257 within metric store 255. According to one embodiment, each threadrepresents a request to receive data corresponding to one or moremachines. In response to the query, transform 257 forwards theapplicable metrics data to calculation engine 216.

In a further embodiment, thread generator 310 may generate additionalparallel threads, and transmit a query to transform 257 for a subsequentset of machines 220 for a subsequent set of time intervals. In yet afurther embodiment, this process is repeated until the targetavailability percentage (A) for all machines 220 are determined at thethreshold metric value (X). Transform 257 may be configured to receive anumber of threads (Z) and transmit requests to another transform (notshown) to obtain results for multiple input metric values in parallelfor a time range.

Time range logic 320 divides a time range into an input number of timeintervals. In one embodiment, the start and end times of each timeinterval points to 15 minutes prior to the start and end of hours,respectively (e.g., 10:45 AM-11.15 AM) to ensure that the starting houris included and data beyond the 59th minute of the last hour is excludedto avoid duplicates. In one embodiment, an hourly sum of minutes iscomputed for a split time interval range. In a further embodiment, anavailability value is determined indicating an amount of time in whicheach machine is unavailable during the time range. In such anembodiment, the availability value is computed by adding the timeintervals to determine a sum of minutes of unavailability over the totalminutes. As an example, a date range (e.g., October 1-October 8) may bedivided into 8 one day intervals to determine minutes of unavailabilityfor each day. Subsequently, the entire range is summed to determine afinal availability value for each machine 220 for an input metric value.

Threshold value range module 330 receives a minimum input metric value(W) and a maximum input metric value (Y) from transform 257 as inputboundaries to determine the threshold metric value (X), or reach acondition where there is no value at which an availability percentage(A) can be reached. In one embodiment, threshold value range module 330selects split ranges based on an analysis of timings of runs based onthe input metric value ranges and a determination of which requires alesser quantity time for the entire run. In a further embodiment, abinary search is performed on the metric range to identify the splitrange and generate requests to compute availability percentage.

For example, to determine a metric value between 500 and 1000, theranges in 100s are generated (e.g., 500, 550, 600, 650, 700, 750, 800,850, 900, 950, 1000) and a determination is made as to which rangeincludes the target availability percentage (e.g., 99.9%). If forinstance the 600-650 range is determined to include the 99.9%availability percentage, the range is further divided into sub-ranges(e.g., 600-610, 610-620, 620-630, 630-640, 640-650) to determine thesub-range holding the 99.9% availability percentage. In one embodiment,the sub-ranges can further be divided (e.g., dividing the sub-range640-650 into 640-645, 645-650) to again determine the sub-range holdingthe 99.9% availability percentage. In a further embodiment, every metricvalue between 645-650 is tested (e.g., via parallel metric storequeries) until a single threshold metric value is obtained at which allmachines 220 have the desired availability percentage. This thresholdmetric value represents the value that attains a target availabilitypercentage performance service-level agreement (SLA) for all machines.FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of code to implement threshold valuerange module 330.

According to one embodiment, calculation engine 216 may be configured toonly inspect whether the threshold metric value is within an input rangefor which the target availability percentage can been achieved. In suchan embodiment, there is no need to continue to search for the best (oractual) threshold value. Knowing the availability percentages at theboundary values is sufficient. In a further embodiment, the thresholdmetric value calculation to compute a target availability percentage maybe performed for all machines, live production machines or testmachines. In such in embodiment, outcomes between live production andtest machines may be compared to remove outliers, and operate with onlyselected machine.

Referring back to FIG. 2, error handling logic 218 is implemented toreceive error messages and result messages from transform 257. In oneembodiment, error handling logic 218 facilitates a retransmission ofqueries to transform 257 upon receiving an error message. In such anembodiment, calculation engine 216 retransmits the query with a reducednumber of parallel thread requests (e.g., 2). In a further embodiment,retransmissions are continued until no errors are received at errorhandling logic 218. FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of code toimplement error handling logic 218.

Reporting module 219 reports the calculated threshold metric values thatenables machines 220 to attain the target availability percentage. Inone embodiment, reporting module 219 periodically transmits values toone or more applications to immediately provide an alert when thresholdsare breached for a machine. In such an embodiment, the threshold metricvalues may be displayed at a user interface at each of the applications.In a further embodiment, reporting module 219 may be configured toidentify individual requests (or request types) to report metrics beyondthreshold and automatically implement an action corresponding to therequests (or request type). In yet a further embodiment, reportingmodule 219 may also be configured as a base for traffic lights forrelevant processes within the application to throttle; and compare thethresholds across different types of machines 220.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a method 600 illustrating one embodiment ofa process performed by a value calculation mechanism 210. Method 600 maybe performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g.,circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, etc.), software (such asinstructions run on a processing device), or a combination thereof. Theprocesses of method 600 are illustrated in linear sequences for brevityand clarity in presentation; however, it is contemplated that any numberof them can be performed in parallel, asynchronously, or in differentorders. Further, for brevity, clarity, and ease of understanding, manyof the components and processes described with respect to FIGS. 1-5 maynot be repeated or discussed hereafter.

Method 600 begins at processing block 610, where the configuration datais received. At processing block 620, the configuration data isvalidated. At processing block 630, parallel threads are generated andtransmitted as a query to a metrics store transform. At processing block640, the requested metrics data is received. At decision block 650, adetermination is made as to whether one or more error messages have beenreceived. If so, control is returned to processing block 630, where asubsequent query with revised threads are transmitted. Otherwise, thethreshold metric value for target SLA is computed, as discussed above,processing block 660. At processing block 660, the computed variablesare reported.

FIG. 7 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine 900 in theexemplary form of a computer system, in accordance with one embodiment,within which a set of instructions, for causing the machine 900 toperform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may beexecuted. Machine 900 is the same as or similar to computing devices120, 130A-N of FIG. 1. In alternative embodiments, the machine may beconnected (e.g., networked) to other machines in a network (such as hostmachine 120 connected with client machines 130A-N over network(s) 135 ofFIG. 1), such as a cloud-based network, Internet of Things (IoT) orCloud of Things (CoT), a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network(WAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), a Personal Area Network (PAN),an intranet, an extranet, or the Internet. The machine may operate inthe capacity of a server or a client machine in a client-server networkenvironment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed)network environment or as a server or series of servers within anon-demand service environment, including an on-demand environmentproviding multi-tenant database storage services. Certain embodiments ofthe machine may be in the form of a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC,a set-top box (STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellulartelephone, a web appliance, a server, a network router, switch orbridge, computing system, or any machine capable of executing a set ofinstructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be takenby that machine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated,the term “machine” shall also be taken to include any collection ofmachines (e.g., computers) that individually or jointly execute a set(or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein.

The exemplary computer system 900 includes a processor 902, a mainmemory 504 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) or Rambus DRAM(RDRAM), etc., static memory such as flash memory, static random accessmemory (SRAM), volatile but high-data rate RAM, etc.), and a secondarymemory 918 (e.g., a persistent storage device including hard disk drivesand persistent multi-tenant data base implementations), whichcommunicate with each other via a bus 930. Main memory 904 includesemitted execution data 924 (e.g., data emitted by a logging framework)and one or more trace preferences 923 which operate in conjunction withprocessing logic 926 and processor 902 to perform the methodologiesdiscussed herein.

Processor 902 represents one or more general-purpose processing devicessuch as a microprocessor, central processing unit, or the like. Moreparticularly, the processor 902 may be a complex instruction setcomputing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing(RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor,processor implementing other instruction sets, or processorsimplementing a combination of instruction sets. Processor 902 may alsobe one or more special-purpose processing devices such as an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array(FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), network processor, or thelike. Processor 902 is configured to execute the processing logic 926for performing the operations as described with reference to FIG. 1 andother Figures discussed herein.

The computer system 900 may further include a network interface card908. The computer system 900 also may include a user interface 910 (suchas a video display unit, a liquid crystal display (LCD), or a cathoderay tube (CRT)), an alphanumeric input device 912 (e.g., a keyboard), acursor control device 914 (e.g., a mouse), and a signal generationdevice 916 (e.g., an integrated speaker). The computer system 900 mayfurther include peripheral device 936 (e.g., wireless or wiredcommunication devices, memory devices, storage devices, audio processingdevices, video processing devices, etc. The computer system 900 mayfurther include a Hardware based API logging framework 934 capable ofexecuting incoming requests for services and emitting execution dataresponsive to the fulfillment of such incoming requests.

The secondary memory 918 may include a machine-readable storage medium(or more specifically a machine-accessible storage medium) 931 on whichis stored one or more sets of instructions (e.g., software 922)embodying any one or more of the methodologies as described withreference to FIG. 1, respectively, and other figures discussed herein.The software 522 may also reside, completely or at least partially,within the main memory 904 and/or within the processor 902 duringexecution thereof by the computer system 900, the main memory 904 andthe processor 902 also constituting machine-readable storage media. Thesoftware 922 may further be transmitted or received over a network 920via the network interface card 908. The machine-readable storage medium931 may include transitory or non-transitory machine-readable storagemedia.

Portions of various embodiments may be provided as a computer programproduct, which may include a computer-readable medium having storedthereon computer program instructions, which may be used to program acomputer (or other electronic devices) to perform a process according tothe embodiments. The machine-readable medium may include, but is notlimited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, compact disk read-onlymemory (CD-ROM), and magneto-optical disks, ROM, RAM, erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically EPROM (EEPROM),magnet or optical cards, flash memory, or other type ofmedia/machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronicinstructions.

The techniques shown in the figures can be implemented using code anddata stored and executed on one or more electronic devices (e.g., an endstation, a network element). Such electronic devices store andcommunicate (internally and/or with other electronic devices over anetwork) code and data using computer-readable media, such asnon-transitory computer-readable storage media (e.g., magnetic disks;optical disks; random access memory; read only memory; flash memorydevices; phase-change memory) and transitory computer-readabletransmission media (e.g., electrical, optical, acoustical or other formof propagated signals such as carrier waves, infrared signals, digitalsignals). In addition, such electronic devices typically include a setof one or more processors coupled to one or more other components, suchas one or more storage devices (non-transitory machine-readable storagemedia), user input/output devices (e.g., a keyboard, a touchscreen,and/or a display), and network connections. The coupling of the set ofprocessors and other components is typically through one or more bussesand bridges (also termed as bus controllers). Thus, the storage deviceof a given electronic device typically stores code and/or data forexecution on the set of one or more processors of that electronicdevice. Of course, one or more parts of an embodiment may be implementedusing different combinations of software, firmware, and/or hardware.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an environment 1010 wherein anon-demand database service might be used. Environment 1010 may includeuser systems 1012, network 1014, system 1016, processor system 1017,application platform 618, network interface 1020, tenant data storage1022, system data storage 1024, program code 1026, and process space1028. In other embodiments, environment 1010 may not have all of thecomponents listed and/or may have other elements instead of, or inaddition to, those listed above.

Environment 1010 is an environment in which an on-demand databaseservice exists. User system 1012 may be any machine or system that isused by a user to access a database user system. For example, any ofuser systems 1012 can be a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, alaptop computer, a workstation, and/or a network of computing devices.As illustrated in herein FIG. 8 (and in more detail in FIG. 9) usersystems 1012 might interact via a network 1014 with an on-demanddatabase service, which is system 1016.

An on-demand database service, such as system 1016, is a database systemthat is made available to outside users that do not need to necessarilybe concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system, butinstead may be available for their use when the users need the databasesystem (e.g., on the demand of the users). Some on-demand databaseservices may store information from one or more tenants stored intotables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system(MTS). Accordingly, “on-demand database service 1016” and “system 1016”will be used interchangeably herein. A database image may include one ormore database objects. A relational database management system (RDMS) orthe equivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information againstthe database object(s). Application platform 1018 may be a frameworkthat allows the applications of system 1016 to run, such as the hardwareand/or software, e.g., the operating system. In an embodiment, on-demanddatabase service 1016 may include an application platform 1018 thatenables creation, managing and executing one or more applicationsdeveloped by the provider of the on-demand database service, usersaccessing the on-demand database service via user systems 1012, or thirdparty application developers accessing the on-demand database servicevia user systems 1012.

The users of user systems 1012 may differ in their respectivecapacities, and the capacity of a particular user system 1012 might beentirely determined by permissions (permission levels) for the currentuser. For example, where a salesperson is using a particular user system1012 to interact with system 1016, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that salesperson. However, while an administrator is usingthat user system to interact with system 1016, that user system has thecapacities allotted to that administrator. In systems with ahierarchical role model, users at one permission level may have accessto applications, data, and database information accessible by a lowerpermission level user, but may not have access to certain applications,database information, and data accessible by a user at a higherpermission level. Thus, different users will have different capabilitieswith regard to accessing and modifying application and databaseinformation, depending on a user's security or permission level.

Network 1014 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 1014 can be any oneor any combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide areanetwork), telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network,star network, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. As the most common type of computer network in currentuse is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol)network, such as the global internetwork of networks often referred toas the “Internet” with a capital “I,” that network will be used in manyof the examples herein. However, it should be understood that thenetworks that one or more implementations might use are not so limited,although TCP/IP is a frequently implemented protocol.

User systems 1012 might communicate with system 1016 using TCP/IP and,at a higher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 1012 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP messages to and from anHTTP server at system 1016. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface between system 1016 and network 1014, butother techniques might be used as well or instead. In someimplementations, the interface between system 1016 and network 1014includes load-sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP requestdistributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requestsevenly over a plurality of servers. At least as for the users that areaccessing that server, each of the plurality of servers has access tothe MTS' data; however, other alternative configurations may be usedinstead.

In one embodiment, system 1016, shown in FIG. 7, implements a web-basedcustomer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, in oneembodiment, system 616 includes application servers configured toimplement and execute CRM software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and fromuser systems 1012 and to store to, and retrieve from, a database systemrelated data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system,data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical databaseobject, however, tenant data typically is arranged so that data of onetenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants so that onetenant does not have access to another tenant's data, unless such datais expressly shared. In certain embodiments, system 1016 implementsapplications other than, or in addition to, a CRM application. Forexample, system 1016 may provide tenant access to multiple hosted(standard and custom) applications, including a CRM application. User(or third party developer) applications, which may or may not includeCRM, may be supported by the application platform 618, which managescreation, storage of the applications into one or more database objectsand executing of the applications in a virtual machine in the processspace of the system 1016.

One arrangement for elements of system 1016 is shown in FIG. 8,including a network interface 1020, application platform 1018, tenantdata storage 1022 for tenant data 1023, system data storage 1024 forsystem data 1025 accessible to system 1016 and possibly multipletenants, program code 1026 for implementing various functions of system1016, and a process space 1028 for executing MTS system processes andtenant-specific processes, such as running applications as part of anapplication hosting service. Additional processes that may execute onsystem 1016 include database-indexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 8 include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 1012 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. User system 1012 typically runs an HTTP client, e.g., abrowsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 1012 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 1016 over network 1014. Usersystem 1012 further includes Mobile OS (e.g., iOS® by Apple®, Android®,WebOS® by Palm®, etc.). Each user system 1012 also typically includesone or more user interface devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse,trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen or the like, for interactingwith a graphical user interface (GUI) provided by the browser on adisplay (e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, etc.) in conjunction withpages, forms, applications and other information provided by system 1016or other systems or servers. For example, the user interface device canbe used to access data and applications hosted by system 1016, and toperform searches on stored data, and otherwise allow a user to interactwith various GUI pages that may be presented to a user. As discussedabove, embodiments are suitable for use with the Internet, which refersto a specific global internetwork of networks. However, it should beunderstood that other networks can be used instead of the Internet, suchas an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), anon-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one embodiment, each user system 1012 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Core® processor or the like. Similarly, system 1016(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of their components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using a central processingunit such as processor system 1017, which may include an Intel Pentium®processor or the like, and/or multiple processor units. A computerprogram product embodiment includes a machine-readable storage medium(media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used toprogram a computer to perform any of the processes of the embodimentsdescribed herein. Computer code for operating and configuring system1016 to intercommunicate and to process webpages, applications and otherdata and media content as described herein are preferably downloaded andstored on a hard disk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof,may also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory mediumor device as is well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on anymedia capable of storing program code, such as any type of rotatingmedia including floppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk(DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, andmagnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs),or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/ordata. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may betransmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmissionmedium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, as is wellknown, or transmitted over any other conventional network connection asis well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communicationmedium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as arewell known. It will also be appreciated that computer code forimplementing embodiments can be implemented in any programming languagethat can be executed on a client system and/or server or server systemsuch as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language, Java™,JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such as VBScript, andmany other programming languages as are well known may be used. (Java™is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to one embodiment, each system 1016 is configured to providewebpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client)systems 1012 to support the access by user systems 1012 as tenants ofsystem 1016. As such, system 1016 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant toinclude a computer system, including processing hardware and processspace(s), and an associated storage system and database application(e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also beunderstood that “server system” and “server” are often usedinterchangeably herein. Similarly, the database object described hereincan be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 9 also illustrates environment 1010. However, in FIG. 9 elements ofsystem 1016 and various interconnections in an embodiment are furtherillustrated. FIG. 9 shows that user system 1012 may include processorsystem 1012A, memory system 1012B, input system 1012C, and output system1012D. FIG. 9 shows network 1014 and system 1016. FIG. 9 also shows thatsystem 1016 may include tenant data storage 1022, tenant data 1023,system data storage 1024, system data 1025, User Interface (UI) 1130,Application Program Interface (API) 1132, PL/SOQL 1134, save routines1136, application setup mechanism 1138, applications servers 1100 ₁-1100_(N), system process space 1102, tenant process spaces 1104, tenantmanagement process space 1110, tenant storage area 1112, user storage1114, and application metadata 1116. In other embodiments, environment1010 may not have the same elements as those listed above and/or mayhave other elements instead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

User system 1012, network 1014, system 1016, tenant data storage 1022,and system data storage 1024 were discussed above in FIG. 8. Regardinguser system 1012, processor system 1012A may be any combination of oneor more processors. Memory system 1012B may be any combination of one ormore memory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system1012C may be any combination of input devices, such as one or morekeyboards, mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces tonetworks. Output system 1012D may be any combination of output devices,such as one or more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks.As shown by FIG. 9, system 1016 may include a network interface 1020 (ofFIG. 8) implemented as a set of HTTP application servers 1100, anapplication platform 1018, tenant data storage 1022, and system datastorage 1024. Also shown is system process space 1102, includingindividual tenant process spaces 1104 and a tenant management processspace 1110. Each application server 1100 may be configured to tenantdata storage 1022 and the tenant data 1023 therein, and system datastorage 1024 and the system data 1025 therein to serve requests of usersystems 1012. The tenant data 1023 might be divided into individualtenant storage areas 1112, which can be either a physical arrangementand/or a logical arrangement of data. Within each tenant storage area1112, user storage 1114 and application metadata 1116 might be similarlyallocated for each user. For example, a copy of a user's most recentlyused (MRU) items might be stored to user storage 1114. Similarly, a copyof MRU items for an entire organization that is a tenant might be storedto tenant storage area 1112. A UI 1130 provides a user interface and anAPI 71132 provides an application programmer interface to system 1016resident processes to users and/or developers at user systems 1012. Thetenant data and the system data may be stored in various databases, suchas one or more Oracle™ databases.

Application platform 1018 includes an application setup mechanism 1138that supports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage1022 by save routines 1136 for execution by subscribers as one or moretenant process spaces 1104 managed by tenant management process 1110 forexample. Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL1134 that provides a programming language style interface extension toAPI 1132. A detailed description of some PL/SOQL language embodiments isdiscussed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478 entitled, “Methodand System for Allowing Access to Developed Applicants via aMulti-Tenant Database On-Demand Database Service”, issued Jun. 1, 2010to Craig Weissman, which is incorporated in its entirety herein for allpurposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one or moresystem processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 1116 forthe subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata as anapplication in a virtual machine.

Each application server 1100 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 1025 and tenant data 1023,via a different network connection. For example, one application server1100 ₁ might be coupled via the network 1014 (e.g., the Internet),another application server 1100 _(N-1) might be coupled via a directnetwork link, and another application server 1100 _(N) might be coupledby yet a different network connection. Transfer Control Protocol andInternet Protocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicatingbetween application servers 1100 and the database system. However, itwill be apparent to one skilled in the art that other transportprotocols may be used to optimize the system depending on the networkinterconnect used.

In certain embodiments, each application server 1100 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 1100. In one embodiment, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 1100 and the user systems 1012 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 1100. In one embodiment, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 1100. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain embodiments, three consecutive requests from the same user couldhit three different application servers 1100, and three requests fromdifferent users could hit the same application server 1100. In thismanner, system 1016 is multi-tenant, wherein system 1016 handles storageof, and access to, different objects, data and applications acrossdisparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 1016 to manage theirsales process. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data,customer follow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data,etc., all applicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., intenant data storage 1022). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since allof the data and the applications to access, view, modify, report,transmit, calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a usersystem having nothing more than network access, the user can manage hisor her sales efforts and cycles from any of many different user systems.For example, if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customerhas Internet access in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain criticalupdates as to that customer while waiting for the customer to arrive inthe lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 1016 that are allocatedat the tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant specific data, system 1016 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain embodiments, user systems 1012 (which may be client systems)communicate with application servers 1100 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 1016 that may requiresending one or more queries to tenant data storage 1022 and/or systemdata storage 1024. System 1016 (e.g., an application server 1100 insystem 1016) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g.,one or more SQL queries) that are designed to access the desiredinformation. System data storage 1024 may generate query plans to accessthe requested data from the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects. It should be understood that “table” and “object” may be usedinterchangeably herein. Each table generally contains one or more datacategories logically arranged as columns or fields in a viewable schema.Each row or record of a table contains an instance of data for eachcategory defined by the fields. For example, a CRM database may includea table that describes a customer with fields for basic contactinformation such as name, address, phone number, fax number, etc.Another table might describe a purchase order, including fields forinformation such as customer, product, sale price, date, etc. In somemulti-tenant database systems, standard entity tables might be providedfor use by all tenants. For CRM database applications, such standardentities might include tables for Account, Contact, Lead, andOpportunity data, each containing pre-defined fields. It should beunderstood that the word “entity” may also be used interchangeablyherein with “object” and “table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/817,161, filed Apr. 2, 2004, entitled “Custom Entities and Fields ina Multi-Tenant Database System”, and which is hereby incorporated hereinby reference, teaches systems and methods for creating custom objects aswell as customizing standard objects in a multi-tenant database system.In certain embodiments, for example, all custom entity data rows arestored in a single multi-tenant physical table, which may containmultiple logical tables per organization. It is transparent to customersthat their multiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table orthat their data may be stored in the same table as the data of othercustomers.

Any of the above embodiments may be used alone or together with oneanother in any combination. Embodiments encompassed within thisspecification may also include embodiments that are only partiallymentioned or alluded to or are not mentioned or alluded to at all inthis brief summary or in the abstract. Although various embodiments mayhave been motivated by various deficiencies with the prior art, whichmay be discussed or alluded to in one or more places in thespecification, the embodiments do not necessarily address any of thesedeficiencies. In other words, different embodiments may addressdifferent deficiencies that may be discussed in the specification. Someembodiments may only partially address some deficiencies or just onedeficiency that may be discussed in the specification, and someembodiments may not address any of these deficiencies.

While one or more implementations have been described by way of exampleand in terms of the specific embodiments, it is to be understood thatone or more implementations are not limited to the disclosedembodiments. To the contrary, it is intended to cover variousmodifications and similar arrangements as would be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims shouldbe accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all suchmodifications and similar arrangements. It is to be understood that theabove description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving configurationinformation; validating accuracy of the configuration; generating afirst set of threads, wherein a thread comprises a request to receivedata associated with one or more machines; transmitting a queryincluding the first set of threads to a metrics store to receive aplurality of performance metrics data; receiving the plurality ofperformance metrics data including a minimum metric value and a maximummetric value from a metrics store, wherein the minimum and maximummetric values comprise input metric boundaries; determining a thresholdmetric value that satisfies a target availability percentage performanceservice-level agreement (SLA) for a plurality of machines based on theplurality of performance metrics data, including: determining athreshold value between the minimum and maximum metric values at whichthe target availability percentage is attained for the plurality ofmachines as the metric value by generating a plurality of ranges betweenthe minimum and maximum metric values and determining which of theplurality of ranges includes the target availability percentage; andreporting the threshold value as the threshold metric value.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising determining an availability valueindicating an amount of time in which each machine is unavailable duringa time range.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving oneor more error messages from the metrics store in response to the query.4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: generating a second set ofthreads in response to receiving the one or more error messages; andtransmitting a second query including the second set of threads.
 5. Acomputing device comprising: at least one physical memory device tostore value calculation logic; and one or more processors coupled withthe at least one physical memory device, the one or more processorsconfigurable to execute the value calculation logic to receiveconfiguration information, validate accuracy of the configuration,generate a first set of threads, wherein a thread comprises a request toreceive data associated with one or more machines, transmit a queryincluding the first set of threads to a metrics store to receive aplurality of performance metrics data, receive a plurality ofperformance metrics data including a minimum metric value and a maximummetric value from a metrics store, wherein the minimum and maximummetric values comprise input metric boundaries, determine a thresholdmetric value that satisfies a target availability percentage performanceservice-level agreement (SLA) for a plurality of machines based on theplurality of performance metrics data, including determining a thresholdvalue between the minimum and maximum metric values at which the targetavailability percentage is attained for the plurality of machines as themetric value by generating a plurality of ranges between the minimum andmaximum metric values and determining which of the plurality of rangesincludes the target availability percentage, and report the thresholdvalue as the threshold metric value.
 6. The computing device of claim 5,wherein the value calculation logic further determines an availabilityvalue indicating an amount of time in which each machine is unavailableduring a time range.
 7. The computing device of claim 5, wherein thevalue calculation logic further receives one or more error messages fromthe metrics store in response to the query.
 8. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, whenexecuted by one or more processors, are configurable to cause the one ormore processors to: receive configuration information; validate accuracyof the configuration; generate a first set of threads, wherein a threadcomprises a request to receive data associated with one or moremachines; transmit a query including the first set of threads to ametrics store to receive a plurality of performance metrics data;receive the plurality of performance metrics data including a minimummetric value and a maximum metric value from a metrics store, whereinthe minimum and maximum metric values comprise input metric boundaries;determine a threshold metric value that satisfies a target availabilitypercentage performance service-level agreement (SLA) for a plurality ofmachines based on the plurality of performance metrics data, including:determining a threshold value between the minimum and maximum metricvalues at which the target availability percentage is attained for theplurality of machines as the metric value by generating a plurality ofranges between the minimum and maximum metric values and determiningwhich of the plurality of ranges includes the target availabilitypercentage; and report the threshold value as the threshold metricvalue.
 9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, havingstored thereon instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, are configurable to further cause the one or more processorsto determine an availability value indicating an amount of time in whicheach machine is unavailable during a time range.
 10. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 8, having stored thereon instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors, are configurable tofurther cause the one or more processors to transmit a query to themetrics store to receive the plurality of performance metrics data.